The whole background of DZC/DFC is quite weak actually, with many huge glaring holes.

Like the Reconquest itself. What happens to all the billions of Scourge non combatants? If the UCM has retaken Eden, what is happening with the Scourge civilians there? Are they are totally hostile or do they surrender? The "fluff" implies they are totally hostile and don't surrender but that is not clear. The fluff also implies the UCM can't communicate with them because the first mention of communication is that message before the Scourge counter attacked.

So the UCM must have industrial grade death camps to kill these formerly human non combatants who are infected with a Scourge parasite. So no population to run the factories, businesses, etc. The newly conquered worlds are therefore not productive. So the cities are now ghost cities, except for a tiny amount of skeleton staff that have to be ferried from the UCM worlds.

Do the Scourge civilians resist, knowing they will be sent to death camps? One would imagine so. So there is a huge militarty effort going on to round up and exterminate the Scourge civilians.

None of this is mentioned in the background.

It's a shame really. These massive gaps make it really hard to build up enthusiasm for the game's setting. It's just too "bleh". More than a tiny little bug in the Resistance fluff, IMO.

Like the Reconquest itself. What happens to all the billions of Scourge non combatants? If the UCM has retaken Eden, what is happening with the Scourge civilians there? Are they are totally hostile or do they surrender? The "fluff" implies they are totally hostile and don't surrender but that is not clear. The fluff also implies the UCM can't communicate with them because the first mention of communication is that message before the Scourge counter attacked.

So the UCM must have industrial grade death camps to kill these formerly human non combatants who are infected with a Scourge parasite. So no population to run the factories, businesses, etc. The newly conquered worlds are therefore not productive. So the cities are now ghost cities, except for a tiny amount of skeleton staff that have to be ferried from the UCM worlds.

Do the Scourge civilians resist, knowing they will be sent to death camps? One would imagine so. So there is a huge militarty effort going on to round up and exterminate the Scourge civilians.

None of this is mentioned in the background.

It's a shame really. These massive gaps make it really hard to build up enthusiasm for the game's setting. It's just too "bleh". More than a tiny little bug in the Resistance fluff, IMO.

I thought the fluff indicated that the every Scourge citizen is also a soldier, so I thought they were all called up and the UCM had been grinding through them.

Like the Reconquest itself. What happens to all the billions of Scourge non combatants? If the UCM has retaken Eden, what is happening with the Scourge civilians there? Are they are totally hostile or do they surrender? The "fluff" implies they are totally hostile and don't surrender but that is not clear. The fluff also implies the UCM can't communicate with them because the first mention of communication is that message before the Scourge counter attacked.

So the UCM must have industrial grade death camps to kill these formerly human non combatants who are infected with a Scourge parasite. So no population to run the factories, businesses, etc. The newly conquered worlds are therefore not productive. So the cities are now ghost cities, except for a tiny amount of skeleton staff that have to be ferried from the UCM worlds.

Do the Scourge civilians resist, knowing they will be sent to death camps? One would imagine so. So there is a huge militarty effort going on to round up and exterminate the Scourge civilians.

None of this is mentioned in the background.

It's a shame really. These massive gaps make it really hard to build up enthusiasm for the game's setting. It's just too "bleh". More than a tiny little bug in the Resistance fluff, IMO.

I thought the fluff indicated that the every Scourge citizen is also a soldier, so I thought they were all called up and the UCM had been grinding through them.

Yup, me, too.

Sorry, Sword, but I disagree. I think the fluff of the Dropzone universe is pretty solid.

But then again, I'm pretty easy to please. (I even liked Green Lantern -- Hey, he was a childhood hero, I liked the childish interpretation! )

(Although, I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed by Batman vs Superman. "Martha..." Really? That was Bruce's "off" switch?!?! Now, that was bleh! Also, I'm a huge Dark Night fan, and fan of the Batman world that Christopher Nolan built, and think it's way too early for a reboot of the franchise, but, hey, who am I to get in the way of a capitalist plot? At least we got Wonder Woman out of the deal, and she seems worthwhile... But I digress...).

(But, also, I grew up on Adam West's Batman, and fondly remember Tim Burton's debut effort of the Caped Cruisader as one of my first dates with my wife, and not a huge Ben Affleck fan, and no one tops Christpher Reeves as Superman, in my book... But I will go to the next Justice League movie, although my wife probably won't (she walked out of Batman vs Superman -- LOL! Good thing we took separate cars! )

I love my job (well, I love having a job), but a bad day of gaming beats a good day of work every time!

One thought that does occur to me is that it's very likely that the UCM has at least one camp full of Scourge captives that they can use to run experiments on (to see if they can find a method of removing the parasite and saving the host)

I think all of your criticisms are well founded. I think it's frankly absurd the way the resistance are portrayed in the fluff, fighting against a scourge occupation that wiped out all pre-ucm military without even flinching. And for nearly 200 years, still having functioning military vehicles that somehow weren't destroyed during the initial invasion, or that rusted away. (that they somehow know how to use)

Don't get me wrong, I love the game and I love my resistance army to bits, but I think the resistance need to be presented a bit more humbly, or at the very least provide an explanation as to why there is still an organised resistance after 160 years

One possible explanation that could justify a few resistance forces (I'm working on a short story surrounding this idea using my soviet themed resistance) is the fact that the scourge were too busy fighting the shaltari after they wiped out the human military. This would make sense, as the shaltari would have been seen as a much bigger threat. For nearly 200 years, the survivors lived in the shadows, minding their own business in small communities, doing everything to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Then, when the UCM arrived, they saw the chance for a much better life, dusted off civilian vehicles, by some incredible chance found a stash of old military vehicles and weapons in an underground hangar, and risked everything to "take back their world"

Don't forget that 99.9% of humanity was wiped out during the invasion so not many hosts for the scourge to control and therefore not billions of troops to get through per planet. The Resistance's pre invasion tech is the same tech that defeated the Shaltari during the EAA's war with them, Shaltari are the most advanced race so just because they use cars and busses and share some asthetics with mad max they are not bumbling savages, even the feral ones. In fact Salakhan (arguably the most savage of feral warlords) managed to build or maintain enough nukes to flatten Atlantia..... maintaining/building nukes is difficult for most countries in the real world so lets not discount their technical no how.

I think it's mentioned in the early background that many of the Cradle world cities where designed to have the recreational areas and buildings above ground but the majority of the ugly power generation, manufacturing, etc hidden underground to keep the natural beauty of the new worlds that had been lost on Earth.

With that in mind they're likely to have sprawling underground networks and the technology/materials to make that feasible. For example, growing food and replenishing/recycling oxygen without sunlight, etc must be very common tech for humanity to have traveled between stars and colonised other worlds.

The elephant in the room that I haven't seen mentioned are ridiculously giant old-fashioned hovercraft- lot of amphibious landings in the pre-Scourge human empire?

I'm not sure I would acquiesce to the idea that the Scourge did not even flinch in the initial invasion - I think it was more like, a society that had not seen widespread war was faced with an overwhelming, nonstop, one-way assault. And let's not forget the damage, both in terms of military assets and morale, those abandonist basta-- excuse me, promo-PHR -- did immediately before....

The EAA was not prepared for the scale of the invasion, I think. It was a war they had not countenanced.